Tampa Bay’s streak at eight
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays extended Major League Baseball’s best start in 20 years behind Jeffrey Springs’ seven innings of three-hit ball and Randy Arozarena’s four RBIs, routing the Oakland Athletics 11-0 Saturday for an 8-0 record.
Tampa Bay is the first big league team to open 8-0 since the 2003 Kansas City Royals won their first nine games. The Rays have outscored opponents 64-18 and are the first team to win its first eight games by four or more runs since the 1884 St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association did it in their first 13.
No team had won eight straight games by that margin at any point in a season since the 1939 Yankees did it 10 times in a row.
Isaac Paredes and Brandon Lowe had three RBIs each for the Rays.
Springs (2-0), coming off six, no-hit innings in his season debut against Detroit, gave up a leadoff single in the first to Esteury Ruiz. He struck out seven, raising his total to 19 in 13 innings.
Shintaro Fujinami (0-2) allowed five runs, three hits, four walks and hit a batter over 41⁄3 innings in his second major league start. The right-hander didn’t allow a hit until
Royals 6, Giants 5: Salvador Pérez hit a tying, three-run homer in the eighth inning and Nate Eaton scored on a wild pitch in the ninth as Kansas City rallied past San Francisco. Eaton pinch-ran for Vinnie Pasquantino, who led off the ninth with a double off Giants closer Camilo Doval. Eaton advanced to third on a ground out by Hunter Dozier and sprinted to the plate on a wild pitch by Doval (0-1), barely beating the tag by catcher Blake Sabol with a head-first slide.
Cubs 10, Rangers 3:
Justin Steele pitched six effective innings and Patrick Wisdom homered, helping Chicago beat Texas. Trey Mancini had three of Chicago’s 14 hits in its third consecutive win. Yan Gomes hit a solo homer in a four-run eighth, and Wisdom, Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal each had two hits.
Jeffrey Springs of the Rays delivers a pitch during the fourth inning against the Athletics on Saturday. Springs struck out seven batters in the game, raising his season total to 19 in 13 innings.
Phillies 3, Reds 2: Bryon Stott capped a three-run rally in the ninth inning with a winning single to lead Philadelphia over Cincinnati. Cincinnati’s bullpen wasted a tremendous effort from left-hander Nick Lodolo, who struck out a career-high 12 and tossed three-hit ball over seven shutout innings. He walked only two batters over 106 pitches and left with a 1-0 lead. Twins 9, Astros 6: Byron Buxton and Kyle Farmer hit three-run homers to power Minnesota past Houston. Christian Vázquez had two RBI singles, Trevor Larnach had two hits and an RBI and Joe Ryan (2-0) recovered from Yordan Alvarez’s grand slam to win his second straight start. The defending champion Astros were held hitless in seven of nine innings and fell to 3-6. The Twins, who lost all six games to the Astros last season, improved to 6-2. Mariners 3, Guardians 2: Eugenio Suárez drove in two runs and Seattle got to Cal Quantrill early before handing Cleveland's starter his first home loss since 2019.